Oleksandr Usyk, the Ukrainian heavyweight fighter who won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, just recently spoke up against the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) strategy to enable Russian professional athletes to contend in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Usyk argued that permitting Russian professional athletes to contend will just lead to them winning “medals of blood” due to the continuous Russian intrusion of Ukraine. His declaration follows a comparable one from Wladimir Klitschko, who called out IOC President Thomas Bach for the very same factor. The IOC has actually mentioned that in order for Russian and Belarusian professional athletes to be qualified for the 2024 Olympics, they should avoid openly supporting Russia’s war with Ukraine and contend as neutral professional athletes without using their house nation’s colors.
